Already thousands of federal workers are furloughed without pay. Now even more federal workers may need to start searching for *** new job. Over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance said the new cuts would be painful. In *** court filing on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget states more than 4000 federal employees would soon be fired. Agencies expected to take *** hit include the Departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The vice president said on Fox News Channel Sunday Morning Futures, the Trump administration is working to ensure the military is paid this week and some services like food assistance would be preserved for low income Americans. The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be. And Maria, to be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not. *** situation that we relish. This is not something that we're looking forward to. On Saturday, President Donald Trump said that he directed the Defense Department to use all available funds to ensure that US troops are paid. It's *** short-term fix that will not pay for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers still furloughed in Washington. I'm Rachel Herzheimer.
The federal workforce grew 11% in the past decade. Here's which jobs had the most and least growth
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Updated: 9:37 AM CDT Oct 27, 2025
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The federal government workforce grew by about 11% over the past decade, with medical, legal and investigation occupations seeing the largest increase in employees, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. The medical, hospital, dental and public health fields gained the most employees from 2015 to 2025 with a 24% increase, adding 68,600 employees. The medical, hospital, dental and public health industries accounted for about 16% of the total workforce, or roughly 357,000 employees, as of March. Each year, the OPM releases data about federal workers. These stats include how many federal employees there are and which occupations they work in.The latest data is from March 2025. Because of that, it does not offer a complete picture of the nearly 49,000 layoffs that happened in the Trump administration's first 100 days. Those employees are counted as active employees, along with employees on administrative leave pending resignation, retirement or release. The rise in health care and public health workers was largely a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In 2019, these industries employed roughly 314,000 people. By September 2021, that number had grown to nearly 333,000.Transportation and mobile equipment maintenance experienced the largest decrease in employment, losing about 3,200 workers over the past decade. Employment in biological sciences had the second-largest decline, decreasing by about 2,200 employees.A decade ago, general administrative, clerical and office services was the occupation employing the largest number of federal workers at 325,200 in 2015. From 2015 to 2025, that workforce added 14,300 jobs, remaining among the top 10 occupations in the federal government.See how the top 10 occupations in the federal government changed in 2015, 2020 and 2025 in the chart below. PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=
WASHINGTON — The federal government workforce grew by about 11% over the past decade, with medical, legal and investigation occupations seeing the largest increase in employees, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management.
The medical, hospital, dental and public health fields gained the most employees from 2015 to 2025 with a 24% increase, adding 68,600 employees. The medical, hospital, dental and public health industries accounted for about 16% of the total workforce, or roughly 357,000 employees, as of March.
Each year, the OPM releases data about federal workers. These stats include how many federal employees there are and which occupations they work in.
The latest data is from March 2025. Because of that, it does not offer a complete picture of the nearly 49,000 layoffs that happened in the Trump administration's first 100 days. Those employees are counted as active employees, along with employees on administrative leave pending resignation, retirement or release.
The rise in health care and public health workers was largely a in 2020. In 2019, these industries employed roughly 314,000 people. By September 2021, that number had grown to nearly 333,000.
Transportation and mobile equipment maintenance experienced the largest decrease in employment, losing about 3,200 workers over the past decade. Employment in biological sciences had the second-largest decline, decreasing by about 2,200 employees.
A decade ago, general administrative, clerical and office services was the occupation employing the largest number of federal workers at 325,200 in 2015. From 2015 to 2025, that workforce added 14,300 jobs, remaining among the top 10 occupations in the federal government.
See how the top 10 occupations in the federal government changed in 2015, 2020 and 2025 in the chart below.
